CSU pressured by ‘Promise Bill’ to graduate students in 4 years instead of 6

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Bebe Pankaew, left, working with Li Juan Chen, set up an information tent for AIESEC, a student leadership organization at San Jose State University, on Thursday morning. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Angela De Ocampo, Justin De Leon, Bebe Pankaew, and Li Juan Chen (l-r) set up an information tent for AIESEC, a student leadership organization at San Jose State University, Thursday morning in San Jose. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Getting out of San Jose State with a bachelor’s degree in four years is a feat accomplished by a mere 1 in 10 students — and junior Bebe Pankaew is determined to be one of them.

When the psychology major from Union City can’t get the classes she needs, she pays extra for summer courses to stay on track so she can avoid a fifth year — and dodge paying more than $20,000 in tuition and living expenses, not to mention lost wages.

“I need to graduate on time,” she said. “I’m crossing my fingers.”

The soaring cost of college and the high demand for seats at all California State University campuses have thrust an old problem back into the spotlight: Few students are graduating “on time.” Taking five years or longer to earn a bachelor’s degree has been so normal for so long at lower-cost schools such as CSU that most institutions nationally now measure their graduation rates in six years, rather than four, and students call themselves as “fourth-years,” rather than seniors.

A new bill with bipartisan support in the state Senate would help more students finish in four years — and maybe entice them to do so — by offering tuition freezes and priority in course registration in exchange for a commitment to maintain a B average and take five courses a semester. That’s the magic number of courses for an on-time graduation, said the bill’s author, Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, who served on the CSU Board of Trustees.

“It was the No. 1 feedback I received as a trustee: ‘Why is it taking my child so long to get through?’” Glazer said.

The challenge is complex and unwieldy. Nearly 40 percent of CSU freshmen start their college careers with remedial courses that don’t count toward graduation, for instance, and some change majors or choose to take lighter course loads that help them juggle classes, jobs and family obligations.

But Glazer and others in favor of making it easier to graduate in four years argue that confusion is part of the problem: Some students don’t realize until it’s too late that five classes per semester, not four, is what they need to stay on track because four courses is considered a “full-time” load for financial aid purposes.

Ask any student why it takes so long to graduate, and you’ll likely get an﻿ earful about key classes with long waitlists or poor advising.

“The advisers aren’t helpful,” said Felicia Spencer, a third-year engineering major at San Jose State. “You don’t know what classes to take.”

Four-year graduation rates are low throughout CSU. Less than 20 percent of its freshmen graduate in four years, and only about 28 percent of those who transfer to CSU from community colleges graduate within two years.

The most recent national data, tracking students who started in 2008, show a four-year graduation rate of 10 percent at Cal State East Bay and 15 percent at San Francisco State. Schools with higher price tags and more resources for students have much higher rates: 56 percent of students graduate in four years at Saint Mary’s College, in Moraga, and 78 percent at Santa Clara University. Glazer’s bill does not include University of California schools, where 62 percent of students graduate in four years.

CSU has not taken a position on the “California Promise” bill, which would establish incentive programs on each campus for interested freshmen and new transfer students — chiefly, to keep their tuition the same for all four — or two — years. A spokeswoman for the chancellor said the administration shares Glazer’s goals and that they “look forward to working with him.”

Other states, such as Texas, have tried similar tuition-freeze incentives,﻿ but there isn’t yet research to show whether such strategies work, said Colleen Moore, assistant director at Education Insights Center, a higher education research center at Sacramento State.

“I certainly think it’s addressing the right issue,” Moore said. Still, she said, “Not all campuses, frankly, have the capacity to enable all students to enroll in 15 units, even if they wanted to.”

San Jose State’s newly appointed president, Mary Papazian, said in an interview last month that helping more students graduate in four years would be a priority for her administration.

“We’re not fulfilling the promise of opportunity for the students who come here,” she said in an interview last month during a visit to campus.

Changes in San Jose that already are underway could help students who, like Pankaew, are in a hurry to graduate. Provost Andy Feinstein said that the campus is adding 500 new classes this fall, an investment of $2.7 million, and that he hopes to soon hire more advisers for each college on campus.

Next year, San Jose State expects to test a software program that will tell students which courses to take if they aim to graduate in four years — or six.

Sacramento State went as far as hiring a “graduation czar” this year to boost its flagging numbers: 8 percent, the third-lowest in the 23-campus system.

It’s time for CSU to set a new — or old — standard, Glazer said.

“People get numb to it,” he said. “People are numb to the fact that that is just what it is. No, it doesn’t have to be.”